Mixing head

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to a novel mixing head, which comprises a pair of coaxially spaced discs, each of said discs having a plurality of substantially radially extending slots, each of said slots having a leading edge and a trailing edge and each slot being aligned with a corresponding slot on the other disc; a substantially radially extending blade along the trailing edge of each of said aligned slots; and a blade perpendicularly extending substantially from the leading edge of each of said aligned slots to the edge of said discs, said blades being disposed in the space between said discs, perpendicular to the plane of the discs, and are secured to each disc to form compartments in the space between the discs. The novel mixing head also comprises means for connecting with a rotatable shaft. This novel mixer is especially useful for mixing immiscible liquids, to provide high surface areas, and in other processes requiring high local agitation at low power inputs, as for example, in alkylation processes.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a novel mixing head, which comprises a pair of coaxially spaced discs, each of said discs having a plurality of substantially radially extending slots, each of said slots having a leading edge and a trailing edge and each slot being aligned with a corresponding slot on the other disc; a substantially radially extending blade along the trailing edge of each of said aligned slots; and a blade perpendicularly extending substantially from the leading edge of each of said aligned slots to the edge of said discs, said blades being disposed in the space between said discs, perpendicular to the plane of the discs, and are secured to each disc to form compartments in the space between the discs. The novel mixing head also comprises means for connecting with a rotatable shaft. This novel mixer is especially useful for mixing immiscible liquids, to provide high surface areas, and in other processes requiring high local agitation at low power inputs, as for example, in alkylation processes.

BACKGROUND OF THE PRIOR ART

In U.S. Pat. No. 3,215,409, a mixer is disclosed which provides rapid and intense mixing action. This mixer differs from the mixer of the instant invention in both structure and mixing action. The mixer of the instant invention has: (1) no blades exterior to the disc pair; (2) a second blade perpendicular to the radially extending blade; (3) in the preferred embodiment, all blades are connected to both discs to form compartments; and (4) slots in each disc are positioned between the blades pairs and, in said preferred embodiment, of an optimum size. The second blade and optimum slot size are necessary to generate the high value of turbulent intensity accomplished by the instant invention. This structure, of course, fixes the mixing action.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates, in general, to a novel mixing head and more specifically to a high shear turbine impeller. It is an object of this invention to provide a novel mixer which is capable of giving higher local turbulence per unit power input than those known in the prior art.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a novel mixer which is effective for use in processes wherein two immiscible liquids must be contacted, for example, in alkylation processes. Further objects of the invention will be apparent from the specification below. The above objects and other features and advantages are attained by a novel mixing head, which includes a pair of coaxially spaced discs, each of said discs having a plurality of substantially radially extending slots, each of said slots having a leading edge and a trailing edge, and each slot being aligned with a slot on the other disc; a substantially radially extending blade along the trailing edge of each of said aligned slots; and a blade perpendicularly extending substantially from the leading edge of each of said aligned slots to the edge of said discs, said blades being disposed in the space between said discs. Preferably, the blade pairs are perpendicular to the plane of the discs and are attached to both discs to define compartments within the space between the coaxial discs. In the most preferred embodiment, the substantially radially extending blade is directly on the radius of the disc and the center line of the substantially radially extending slot extends parallel thereto. This arrangement of said blade and said slot allows for ease of balance of the mixing head. In accordance with this invention, this mixing head may be constructed so as to provide means for attachment to a rotatable shaft. The rotatable shaft is connected to power means so as to rotate the mixing head of this invention. The mixing head of the instant invention preferably comprises at least four, preferably six slots spaced in equidistant relationship around the circumference of the discs.

It has been further discovered that the size of the slots described above must be of a certain dimension to provide the optimum balance of turbulence and flow. For example, as further shown below, the slot will preferably have a length to width ratio of at least 3, more preferably from 3 to 4 and have a length of from 1/8 to 1/12 of the diameter of said discs.

It should be noted that the slot will not be extended further toward the center of the disc, along the radius, then the blade.

The blades which are positioned in the space between the discs are like the slots of equivalent geometry. The mixing head will comprise at least four pairs of said blades, more preferably six, all of which are aligned as disclosed above. The blades will extend substantially from the circumference of the discs along the radius, a distance of from 1/2 to 4/5 of the radius.

The mixer of this invention is especially suitable for processes wherein two immiscible liquids are emulsified. For example, in alkylation processes, such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,470,265, herein incorporated by reference, it is shown that the reaction rates are dependent upon the droplet size of the emulsion formed by the mixing of the isoparaffinolefin (hydrocarbon phase) and sulfuric acid (aqueous phase). It is pointed out in this patent that the creation of high interfacial areas at low mixing energy inputs is very desirable from a commercial standpoint.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a top view of the mixer of the instant invention showing the placement of a series of slots, radially extending blades and perpendicular blades.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the mixer of the instant invention.

FIG. 3 is a comparison of the performance of the mixer of the instant invention with that of a standard flat blade turbine.

FIG. 4 compares the intensity of the mixer of the instant invention with that of currently available apparatuses.

FIG. 5 represents the variations in turbulence and flow experienced with different slot sizes and configurations.

In FIGS. 1 and 2, a preferred embodiment of the novel mixer of the instant invention is shown. FIG. 1 is a top view of the mixer of the instant invention, and FIG. 2 is a side view. Referring to these figures, it is shown that the novel mixer of the instant invention comprises a pair of coaxially spaced discs 10, 11 of substantially equivalent geometry. In each of said discs are a series of radially extending slots 13 and a hollow cylinder 14 is centered through said discs and attached thereto to provide means for attaching the discs to a rotatable shaft. Associated with each of said radially extending slots is a radially extending blade which is located along the trailing edge of the slot and attached to both discs 15. There is also associated with each slot a blade 16 extending in perpendicular direction from the leading edge of the slot to the edge of said discs. All of the above-described blades are located in the space between the discs and are preferably attached to both the upper and lower disc. The discs and the hollow cylinder may be all of a single piece or may be fabricated separately and attached by welding or bolting, etc. The blades may be attached by welding, etc. In general, the skilled artisan will choose the materials and fabricating methods with a view toward the process in which the mixing head will be used. In the preferred embodiment, wherein the blades are attached to both the upper and lower discs, compartments are formed within the space between the discs. It is within these compartments that the turbulence and the pumping action is substantially generated. As can be seen in this preferred embodiment, the blades form planes which are substantially normal to the plane of the two discs. It should be noted also that the radially extending blades in FIGS. 1 and 2 do not extend from the circumference of said discs to the intersection of said hollow cylinder, although this is not critical. In general, the radially extending blades extend from the edge of the discs to a point at least as far along the radius as the abovedescribed slots.

In operation, it is to be noted that the rotation of the mixing head will force fluids through the slots from above and below said discs. Fluid will be forced radially inward before the leading edge of the blades on the leading edge of the slots 16 and expelled radially by the blades on the trailing edge of the slots 15. The forcing of the fluid through these discs provides great turbulence and excellent mixing of liquids. The turbulently mixed liquids are pumped out from the mixing head at reasonable velocities in a radially outward direction. As a result, rapid and intense local mixing of the fluid is attained in combination with a sufficient degree of pumping action. The following are specific embodiments of the instant invention.

EXAMPLE 1

In Example 1, the characteristics of the flow generated by the impeller described in FIGS. 1 and 2, and the power consumption are studied. In this embodiment, a model 25/8 inches in diameter is used. The radial flow characteristics are measured along the center of the radial jet issuing from the impeller by use of the method described by R. J. Goldstein in "Measurement of Fluid Velocity by Laser-Doppler Techniques", Applied Mechanics Review, 27 No. 6, June, 1974. In FIGS. 3, 4 and 5, a standard flat-blade turbine (FBT), Brumganin, and disc impeller are compared. The abscissa in all of these figures represents the distance from the tip of the impeller to the wall of the container as the ratio of r (the radial distance from the center line of the container) to R (the radius of the impeller). It is important to note two features of the novel impeller of the instant invention. The average velocity (see FIG. 3) lies midway between the two extremes provided by the prior art impellers and, therefore, is sufficient to effect mixing throughout the vessel used. Note in this figure the ordinate represents the ratio of the local velocity of the liquid to the velocity of the tip of the impeller. The use of this ratio eliminates the effect of RPM. Secondly, the intensity (see FIG. 4) of the impeller of the instant invention is much larger than for any of the others. Thus, it is clearly shown that the novel impeller of the instant invention is extremely useful in mixing two-phase systems where creation of surface area is important. Note that the ordinate in this figure (intensity) is given as the ratio of local turbulence to local velocity. In this example, an 8 inch diameter tank having a depth of 9 inches was used. The fluid, which was used to prepare the figures was water. The power consumption of the mixing head of the instant invention was 34% that of the flat blade turbine (FBT). The measurement was made by techniques known in the art utilizing a torque table. The distance between two coaxial discs of the mixing head of the instant invention was 3/8 of an inch. The thickness of the discs was 1/16 of an inch. The mixing head comprised four pair of blades, which were attached to the upper and lower disc and were 3/8 inch by 1/4 inch rectangles. The slot size was the same as in Case (2) of Example 2 below.

EXAMPLE 2

In this example (see FIG. 5, abscissa same), the variation in turbulence and flow with slot size is demonstrated. The impeller used was the same as in Example 1. However, the slot sizes vary in the following way:

Case (1)

Slot was a 3/16 inch diameter hole centered on line between blades.

Case (2)

Slot was essentially 3-3/16 inch diameter holes parallel to the radially extending blade and spaced inwardly, i.e. toward the center of the discs, from hole of Case (1)

Case (3)

Slot as in Case (2) with a 1/2 inch diameter hole added at the end nearest the center of the discs.

Thus, the slot size increased with Case number.

In FIG. 5, it is noted that pumping action (V/V_(TIP)) increases with slot size but that below some critical size, the turbulent intensity is constant. For this example, Case (2) is the critical size. The preferred embodiment is the slot size that gives the largest pumping action while maintaining the turbulent intensity at its maximum. Thus, preferably, the slot size should have a length to width ratio of from 3 to 4 and have a length of 1/8 to 1/12 of the impeller diameter.

It will be apparent to the skilled artisan, from the above figures, that the novel mixing head of the instant invention will have use in various mixing processes known in the art. In general, mixing processes wherein more than one phase must be mixed, i.e. immiscible liquids, solidliquids, liquids-gases, may be improved by use of this novel mixing head. Mixing processes involving fast reactions, wherein inadequate mixing rates led to undesirable impurities (see for example the processes described in "Mixing and Product Distribution for a Liquid-Phase, Second Order, Competitive-Consecutive Reaction", AIChE Journal, May, 1971, pp. 718-724, by Paul and Treybal) may also be improved by use of the instant novel mixing head.

The novel mixing head described above may be used, with good results, in isomerization of hydrocarbons; dewaxing of crude oils; biological oxidation of waste water; neutralization of acid and acid anhydride containing polymers; polymerization processes; sulfonation processes; nitration processes; dispersion of pigments, for example, in the manufacture of paints, inks, etc; fermentation processes; etc. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A mixing head including a pair of coaxially spaced discs, each of said discs having a plurality of substantially radially extending slots, each of said slots having a leading edge and a trailing edge, and each slot being aligned with a slot on the opposite disc; a substantially radially extending blade along the trailing edge of each of said aligned slots; and a blade perpendicularly extending substantially from the leading edge of each of said aligned slots to the edge of said discs, said blades being disposed in the space between the discs.
 2. The mixing head of claim 1 wherein such disc has at least 4 slots spaced at equal distances around the circumference of the disc.
 3. The mixer of claim 2 wherein each blade is attached to both discs so as to define compartments in the space between the discs.
 4. The mixer of claim 3 including a hollow cylinder axially spaced through the center of said disc and attached to both discs.
 5. The mixer of claim 4 wherein said radially extending blades extend approximately from the circumference of the disc to said hollow cylinder. 